The story of Jack Johnson is huge. The first black Heavyweight Champion of the World, 1908 to 1915, he was rowdy, smart, rebellious, and proud. He was also resilient in the face of unrelenting racism. And, as Stanley Crouch observes in Ken Burns' Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, "There is nobody like Jack Johnson, because, first thing, when Jack Johnson was fighting, he could have been killed at any of his major fights. There were people out in the audience who were probably willing to murder him. He knew it, they knew it, everybody in the world knew it."

A Tribute to Jack Johnson is a soundtrack composed by Miles Davis to accompany a documentary film about the life of boxer Jack Johnson. For the score, Davis said he wanted to put together what he called "the greatest rock and roll band you have ever heard." The line-up featured John McLaughlin and Sonny Sharrock (guitars), Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea (keyboards), Bennie Maupin (clarinet), and Jack DeJohnette and Billy Cobham (drums). Produced by Teo Macero, the soundtrack was recorded in two sessions between February and April of 1970. Both sessions took place at the 30th Street Studio in New York City.

None of Miles Davis' recordings has been more shrouded in mystery than Jack Johnson, yet none has better fulfilled Miles Davis' promise that he could form the "greatest rock band you ever heard." Containing only two tracks, the album was assembled out of no less than four recording sessions between February 18, 1970, and June 4, 1970, and was patched together by producer Teo Macero. Most of the outtake material ended up on Directions, Big Fun, and elsewhere. The first misconception is the lineup: the credits on the recording are incomplete.